ArtificialWisdom

I know people keep saying this and it's a valid point. Calm down fellas, Think more like 1 goal better side. We averaged 13.10 (88) last year going up by 4 goals a game (assuming similar accuracy) would take us to an unheard average of around 17.14 (118). Hell do that and we would be near unbeatable. A 2 goal better side takes you into a premiership caliber offence, we arnt there yet.

Yeah but he is only able to do that if we dont put enough pressure on. If we force enough turnovers then it forces their forwards to come up and contend on the wing rather than wait out the back. We both more or less play the same way it's just that their forward pressure has been better than ours in previous games. The reality is I'm happy for their forwards to hang out the back and kick 5 or 6 goals from the goal square if we force enough turnovers that they only kick a total of 10/12 goals all up. I would back ourselves to score more than that. I've said a number of times that i hate ANB playing as a forward but given he is keen to put pressure on he might actually be worth a run in round 1. Assuming of course that one of Garlett/Kent is unavailable.

haha yeah i know nobody really tags anymore but i was just trying to point out that for everyone who gets the hypothetical tag we have a couple that can step up. As for the A graders I think we need about 3 more. We have a whole heap of B grade young mids who are still a long way off being A grade. Maybe Viney is close to being there now. The rest are probably a couple of years off being A grader midfielders (yes, even Oliver despite all the potential he is showing) and none of them are A+ superstars . Hopefully we can get 2 or 3 to grow near the top with Viney but I'm yet to be convinced any will actually be A+.

I'm with you. I just want to hear about footy so the show suits me. I'm happy to hear the scores of other sports but dont really care about them in depth. I will admit though that more general sports fans might want more variety in their coverage.

probably the same one who said Essendon would make it

Because we have no forwardline pressure when we play them and we turn it over too much. They are all threatening when its coming at 100 miles an hour under no pressure.

No rose for Oliver at all but there might be some here who look at parish through some pretty crappy coloured glasses. Theres every chance he will end up being a better player than Oliver. However I believe that Oliver will be so good that even if Parish is "better" we will be happy given those around him. I'd rather have 3 top 10 players than the number 1 player in the comp* *yes i know parish may never be the number 1 player in the comp but you get my point

Amost no chance to happen but I like the way you're thinking. No doubt he has the tank to run up on a wing. Do we need to be throwing our plan A out the window in round 1? Probably not but I do see how come the first bounce seeing Hogan on the wing would certinly put them straight onto the back foot. Makes Roo become super accountable and at worst case if Hogan is clunking them on the wing every time we get a rebound 50 it would force either Brown or Carlisle to come up and play as a wingman. A prospect they wouldn't really want to see. Fun thought. I like seeing the outside the box plans that have a bit of merit. Even if they arnt likely to happen

"No way" is a bit strong. But I suppose thats the closest to my opinion .

2? please, we could have 4. Oliver, Viney, Salem and Tyson could all one day demand the tag. Even if the tagger doesnt really exist anymore.

Oh yeah i didnt mean you were. Theres a ridiculously big difference between winning every game and being able to win every game you play. We will join a list of about 9 sides that can win any week if they play well this year. None of them will win all of them (well if the Giants are as good as their hype they might come close). All I was saying is going in last year we could accept a lost more than likely garanteed some weeks. This year every game will be like last years Saints/Port games. We can win, and its gonna be frusrating when we dont. Last year it was easy to brush ourselves off after the loses against Sydney, Adelaide, Hawthorn etc. I dont think we will find that so easy this year. Edit: Just take the last JLT loss as an example. We lost to a full strength top 6 side in perth by 25 points and there were still people claiming we were pathetic. Last year we lost by 22 at our home ground against Adelaide and we were saying they played pretty well. Such is the difference in expectations this year.

2016 was the last year where we could accept a loss before the game started. This year there is not a single game on that fixture where we a no chance, which is great, but also a bit of a double edged sword. Round one is the prime example, we can win! but its likely we wont. Every game this year we should be looking to find a way to win. This means unlike the last couple of years its not only going to be a very exciting year but also an extremely frustrating one. While we might have more wins this year, we wont be able to hide behind the "we were never going to win" excuse anymore. Any loss will be a bigger dissapointment than last year. I dont know about you, but im bracing for a hell of a bumpy ride.

With youtube's easy embedding it blows my mind that they cant use it to host all their media. It has been one of, if not, the best video hosting services for years. Certainly is the best that is free. That aside, they will know the view count on the website and on youtube. Given for a short while a couple of years ago they were posting on youtube realitivly regularly I suspect they were not getting nearly as many views on the youtube videos compared to the telstra run site.

When it comes down to it I rate St Kilda pretty much spot on level with us. Given we play them twice, to borrow the phrase from the basketball, I'd want at least to 'split the season series' against them. So that means as much as I want to win round 1,If we dont, we will still have another shot at them at the G. So much is being put in to this round 1 clash. As long as its close i dont think the result matters all that much to us. If we get blown out then it might be panic stations but as long as its pretty close win or loss we will still be set up well for the long year Lose round 2? then is time to panic.

Maybe we should put this:

Ozzy man reviews?

Or maybe he thinks high enough of Trenners to have him on the bench supporting his teammates as opposed to sitting in the stands? He would know who he needs to overtake to get a game. He also would have known what was involved. Guarantee Trenners would be better dealing with the bench and then the rush flight than one of the young kids would be.

So this started as a comment on 2 or 3 players and ended up a comment on every one... its kinda long so feel free to just keep scroling Hogan I felt he struggled playing in such a tall forwardline. Spencer forced all 3 of Weid Hoges and Watts to try play CHF at the same time. But hogan still slotted 2 and should have kicked a 3rd. Shaping up well for the year. Jones Not his best outing, some horrible errors took an ok game and made it a poor game. But he is captain for a reason he will bounce back. Salam I would have liked him to get the ball a little more but he was slick every time he got it. I pray he gets the run at it he deserves. he will never be labeled our best but I still think he could be our most valuable midfielder. Watts Great start but a little rust showed. For a first hitout he did enough to show why he is in our best. Some good defencive efforts although he struggled to have a large influence on the game. Will be better for the run. Hopefully they play him at Casey next week just to give him more touch. CP5 Bit of the law of averages at work for CP5 had a game out of the box against the blues then played like a kid again last night. Nothing to panic about he is still young and this was going to happen but wasnt among our best. Whats good about Tracc is he will be fired up to be better round one. Lewis Racked up the numbers and played a role without staring. If he plays like that week in week out we will be happy enough but nothing to write home about Viney Strange game from Vines. Started like he was lost. But worked himself into the game in the second half. Not a good game but the attitude of a captain to find a way to impact late showed, slotted the goal he needed to. Trenners Was clearly never part of the game plan yesterday. Will play in casey intraclub. He was an emergancy clearly i dont understand why its been made such a big deal Brayshaw Only 10 disposals was a little dissapointing but he was good when he had it (aside from 1 kick into the man on the mark). His effort to beat 2 from out of possition for the Spencil running goal was first class. Gawn Dominated in the ruck but didnt impact around the ground. I still think he is better off without spencer playing. Max in the forwardline is great but we miss him when he isnt helping around the ground. I suspect they were trying to give him the run but aslo protect him for round 1 Tyson About as rusty as they come. But walked in and picked up a lazy 24 touches in his first outing. Said in a post game interview he will play at casey next week so that will be good for him to get some touch before round 1. Oliver WOW. Turning heads early. He was our best on the night. Just makes good decisions. Using his feet more which is great. Almost walks around the ground because he just knows where to go. Stretch Needs to find the ball a little more. But he was ok. Just goes about it quietly without doing all that much wrong. Still our best wingman, Hope we can get him a partner. Melksham Best of the 3 JLT games for him. Confirmed himself for round one. Hope he will lift a little more over the year but he was good. Used the ball well at times out of the backline. I see what Goody wanted him for. But I'm not 100% sold yet. Garland Showed why he is a backup. He's going to compete every time he is out there but he will get beaten too often to be in the best team. Struggled with their height. Vince Didnt really have an influence. He is racking up clangers faster than anyone else. I wish they would just play him in the midfield where he at his best. TMac Shanked 1 kick about 10seconds into the game then after that he was good. Some great intercept marks. Showed why he is one of the better Key backs going around. Like most defenders he was caught out running forward due to our shocking turnovers but when they play attacking we are gonna have to wear it a few times. Wied Keeps showing a couple of signs a game jumped at the contest a few times but just cant seem to hang on to them. Just cant influence the game for any amount of time. Missed a goal he should have kicked. I still think they will pick him for round 1, but you could make a case either way. OMac My God this guy cops it before doing all that much wrong. He was copping abuse from the first bounce before he even went near the ball. FWIW It may intrest some to know he only had 2 clangers (not the 45 you would have thought he had reading that match thread) and toped the charts with 1%ers. He got caught out on the rebound like everyone else in the defence did. Was it a good game for him? No, not really but I feel that people just want to stick the boot in when he plays poorly more than others. No doubt that handball was embarassing but there were a few who were much worse than him. Hunt Back to his explosive best. He loved the wide open spaces. Racked up the metres gained. A few shocking kicks on the end of his runs but he broke the lines and we need him to keep doing it. ANB I still hate having him as a forward. However I admit he might have earnt himself a spot as a defencive forward come round 1. Assuming Kent wont play. If he brings the pressure against the saints rebounders he could have a big influence in that game. Bugg Racks up touches but doesnt seem to do anything either exciting or horrible with them. I dont think he is in the best team but he is probably the ultimate 23rd man. Can play anywhere we need and doesnt really do anything horribly wrong. Spencil 3 goals to the big bloke kinda hid the problems he caused. I thought our tall forwards got in each others way a bit. He is there to be a good forward but only 2 marks he just didnt do enough. I think a 3 talls forwardline is better for us. allows Hogan and Watts to go up the ground with Weid deep. Harmes Couldnt get his hands on the footy and then was pretty ordinary when he had it. I dont think he has earnt a spot in round one. I do expect he will go to the VFL and earn his chance at some point throughout the year. Overall: Well any game where you give up 22 scoring shots and 82 points on turnovers you are going to struggle. It was the difference but there were a couple of other observations: Our pressure was there at times but we got drawn a long way forward with the long ground and once they got over the top we were exposed. Some work on our spacing leading up to Subi games should help us in the future bit when we create a habit playing with our MCG spacing we will occasionally break down on the funky shaped grounds. As I aluded to in a couple of the player comments our forwardline stucture struggled being so top heavy. If we were clunking big marks we would have been fine but the fact is we were droping marks alowing it to come straight out then our wall would forced to send it straight back in. Rince, repeat until the Eagles drew too many of us forward and broke through the wall and we got slaughted on the rebound. So what happens next? We desperatly need Garlett and Kent to be ready for round 1 but i doubt the latter will be. Goodys presser makes me think Smith is a good chance to come back in as the 3rd tall defender. His athleticism will help us if not him I'd play Frost for garland but given he hasnt played yet its probably unlikely. Hopefully Hibbard plays because he brings a big improvement on our ball use out of defencive 50. My changes for round 1 assuming they are fit: 24 players down to 22 soOut: Spencer, Trengrove In: Hibbard for Harmes. - For ball use off half back In: Garlett for ANB - Simple: Garlett is a genuine small forward, the ANB is not. In: Smith for Garland - Brings the same effort with more athleticism should be better against the talls. Bugg probably goes if Kent is fit.

That one also spun around on itself it was just insane that it was even considered deliberate let alone paid. When watching on TV you could hear umps started yelling "skill error" late last year but apparently they gave up on that last night.

Thank god someone else sees that. Subi is longer not wider but your point is right. Our pressure was ok but the Eagles were just able to spread so much on the really long ground in any other stadium the would have run our of space. Its the reason they are so dominant at home and so poor away. Funny how the Hawks who have been the best ball users of the comp for the past 5 years are the ones who can consitantly beat the eagles over there. Dogs in the EF and Adelaide late in 2016 both had really low turnover numbers in their wins over there.

For the record the reigning premiers did a similar thing. They took a couple of blokes up to the gold coast who didnt play. It was clearly a plan to play the 22 plus spencer (probably protecting their big bearded asset). Trengrove would have known this so i doubt he is that conserned. Probably had him there to keep to their plan if they had an injury. Would this really be such a big deal around here if it was anyone but trenners?

honestly if 4/5 goal losses against top 6 teams are going to be our "pathetic" games then its probably going to be a pretty good year

All Brayshaw then

does harmes still have a nose after that?

Don't let facts get in the way!